In his first bid to woo the trader community in Delhi, AAP national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of unleashing “tax terrorism” on traders.
Kejriwal urged the city’s traders to vote for AAP on May 12 if they wanted the sealing drive to stop. Addressing a press conference on the issues faced by the traders, the AAP supremo said, “The BJP, which used to be a traders’ party, has broken the backbone of the community. Thousands of notices are being sent to traders with the intention of extorting money from them.”
Referring to the violence in Mayapuri on April 13, Kejriwal claimed the AAP intervened and stopped the sealing drive. “Last month, when sealing at Mayapuri began, AAP government put all efforts to get a stay from court. Today, I want to assure all traders I will ensure no sealing happens in the if you give us all Lok Sabha seats. You strengthen our hands, we will ensure justice,” he said.
Kejriwal further said the policies of the Modi government have ruined traders. “Demonetisation brought endless miseries… When traders barely recovered… the Modi government hastily brought in the GST,” he alleged, adding GST led to loss of jobs.
BJP’s Vijender Gupta said: “They are shedding crocodile tears over GST and sealing. Delhi’s deputy CM himself was a member of the GST council and supported one nation-one tax.”
On sealing, he questioned AAP for not notifying 351 roads as commercial so that traders could get relief.
